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Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England

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Background[edit]

Stuff from History of CofE[edit]

In the 580s, Æthelberht, king of Kent, married the Frankish princess Bertha. Bertha was allowed to remain a Christian and was accompanied by clergy, including a Frankish bishop named Liudhard. Her husband gave her St Martin's Church, a Romano-British church outside of Canterbury, to worship in.[1] Probably influenced by his wife, Æthelberht asked Pope Gregory I to send missionaries, and in 596 the Pope dispatched Augustine, together with a party of priests and monks. This Gregorian Mission arrived in 597. At Christmas, a mass baptism saw around 10,000 people convert to Christianity. Æthelberht was baptised in 601.[2]

Over the next few years, the organisation of the English Church was laid out by Pope Gregory and Augustine. While ultimately under papal authority, the church was to be divided into two ecclesiastical provinces, each led by a metropolitan or archbishop. The northern province was to be based at York and the southern province was to be based at London. Augustine, as archbishop of the southern province, was to have final authority over the entire English Church. Augustine and his successors never moved to London, remaining at Canterbury instead. This division between the Province of Canterbury led by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Province of York led by the Archbishop of York remains into the 21st century.[3] Controversially, Pope Gregory gave Augustine authority over the indigenous Celtic British bishops. In response, the British bishops refused to cooperate with the Roman missionaries.[4] The Celtic and Roman churches disagreed on several issues. The most important was the date of Easter. There were other differences over baptismal customs and the style of tonsure worn by monks.[5]

In 625, the Italian monk Paulinus left Kent with the Princess Æthelburh of Kent, who married King Edwin of Northumbria. Edwin was baptised in 627, and Paulinus became the first Bishop of York. Paulinus fled after Edwin was defeated and killed in battle in 633. The new king, Oswald of Northumbria, promoted the Celtic Christian tradition as practiced at Iona, a center of Celtic monasticism. Saint Aidan established a monastery at Lindisfarne.[6][7] Under King Oswiu of Northumbria, tensions between followers of the Roman and Celtic traditions continued. To settle matters, Osiwu summoned the Synod of Whitby in 664. Both sides made arguments, but the king decided that Northumbria would follow the Roman tradition. His decision was decided on the basis of authority: the successors of Saint Peter outweighed the successors of Saint Columba.[7]

In 668, Theodore of Tarsus became Archbishop of Canterbury. He contributed to the organisation of Christianity in England, reforming many aspects of the church's administration. At the Synod of Hertford in 672, canons were adopted to promote greater uniformity, among these that the English bishops should hold an annual council at Clovesho.[8] A major reorganisation of the English church occurred the late 700s. King Offa of Mercia wanted his own kingdom to have an archbishop since the Archbishop of Canterbury was also a great Kentish magnate. In 787, a council of the English church attended by two papal legates elevated the Diocese of Lichfield into an archbishopric. There were now three provinces in England: York, Lichfield and Canterbury.[9] However, this arrangement was abandoned in 803, and Lichfield was reabsorbed into the Province of Canterbury.[10]

Initially, the diocese was the only administrative unit in the Anglo-Saxon church. The bishop served the diocese from a cathedral town with the help of a group of priests known as the bishop's familia. These priests would baptise, teach and visit the remoter parts of the diocese. Familiae were placed in other important settlements, and these were called minsters.[11] England suffered from Viking raids beginning in the late 8th century. Monasteries and minster-churches were favorite targets since much of England's portable wealth was held there in the form of golden crosses, altar plate, and jewels decorating relics and illuminated Bibles. Eventually, the raids turned into wars of conquest and the kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia, and parts of Mercia were conquered (see Danelaw).[12]

Notes[edit]


Citations[edit]

  1. ^ Starkey 2010, p. 29.
  2. ^ Starkey 2010, pp. 31–32.
  3. ^ Starkey 2010, pp. 32–33.
  4. ^ Moorman 1973, pp. 14–15.
  5. ^ Moorman 1973, p. 19.
  6. ^ Moorman 1973, p. 18.
  7. ^ a b Starkey 2010, p. 34.
  8. ^ Moorman 1973, p. 23.
  9. ^ Starkey 2010, p. 38.
  10. ^ Moorman 1973, p. 39.
  11. ^ Moorman 1973, p. 27.
  12. ^ Starkey 2010, pp. 43–44.

References[edit]

  • Brooks, Nicholas (1984). The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066. London: Leicester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7185-0041-2.
  • Campbell, James (1986). "Observations on the Conversion of England". Essays in Anglo-Saxon History. London: Hambledon Press. pp. 69–84. ISBN 978-0-907628-32-3.
  • Campbell, James; John, Eric; Wormald, Patrick (1991). The Anglo-Saxons. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-014395-9.
  • Chaney, William A. (1970). The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England: The Transition from Paganism to Christianity. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
  • Fletcher, R. A. (1998). The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity. New York: H. Holt and Co. ISBN 978-0-8050-2763-1.
  • Herrin, Judith (1989). The Formation of Christendom. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-00831-8.
  • Hindley, Geoffrey (2006). A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons: The Beginnings of the English Nation. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7867-1738-5.
  • Higham, N. J. (1997). The Convert Kings: Power and Religious Affiliation in Early Anglo-Saxon England. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-4827-2.
  • Kirby, D.P. (1992). The Earliest English Kings. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-09086-5.
  • Kirby, D. P. (2000). The Earliest English Kings. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-24211-0.
  • Markus, R. A. (April 1963). "The Chronology of the Gregorian Mission to England: Bede's Narrative and Gregory's Correspondence". Journal of Ecclesiastical History. 14 (1): 16–30. doi:10.1017/S0022046900064356. S2CID 162545648.
  • Markus, R. A. (1997). Gregory the Great and His World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-58430-2.
  • Mayr-Harting, Henry (1991). The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England (3rd ed.). University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0-271-00769-4.
  • Moorman, John R. H. (1973). A History of the Church in England (3rd ed.). Morehouse Publishing. ISBN 978-0819214065.
  • Petts, David (2003). Christianity in Roman Britain. Stroud, UK: Tempus. ISBN 0-7524-2540-4.
  • Rollason, D.W. (1982). The Mildrith Legend: A Study in Early Medieval Hagiography in England. Atlantic Highlands: Leicester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7185-1201-9.
  • Stenton, Frank Merry (1971). Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-821716-9.
  • Whitelock, Dorothy. English Historical Documents. Vol. 1.
  • Wood, Ian (January 1994). "The Mission of Augustine of Canterbury to the English". Speculum. 69 (1): 1–17. doi:10.2307/2864782. JSTOR 2864782. S2CID 161652367.
  • Yorke, Barbara. "The Kingdom of the East Saxons." Anglo-Saxon England 14 (1985): 1-36.
  • Yorke, Barbara (1990). Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Seaby. ISBN 978-1-85264-027-9.
  • Yorke, Barbara (2006). The Conversion of Britain: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain c. 600–800. Religion, Politics and Society in Britain. Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-77292-2.


  • Hylson-Smith, Kenneth (1999). Christianity in England from Roman Times to the Reformation. Vol. 1: From Roman Times to 1066. SCM Press. ISBN 0334027691.
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